Vacation Musings

[bjones6416]

While on vacation at the beach this week, I ended up in a house with my own Sony Pocket Reader and Jetbook Lite, an Aluratek Libre, and a B&N Nook. The Nook belongs to a friend undergoing cancer treatment, but unfortunately he was hospitalized with some complications before he was able to do anything with it. (Okay, plus he's not particularly technical -- he just wants to read!)

It was a good opportunity to look at some displays side-by-side although unfortunately I forgot to take any pics. I'm a little disappointed to say that my beloved Sony Reader had the lightest display, with the least contrast, of any of them. The two readers with the TFT display (the JBL and the Libre) actually have the best contrast. The Nook is somewhere in between, but definitely darker than the Sony.

BUT, of the four of them, keeping in mind that the JBL and the Libre are virtually identical, the Nook is the least intuitive to me. I'm one of those people to whom people hand their various electronic devices and say, "Show me how to ___________ with this," and usually I can. I had to go online to a Nook forum to figure out some of the Nook navigation, though. I ended up side-loading a few books for him, hoping he'll remember to find them in "My Documents" instead of "My Library."

Of the four readers I had in front of me, I still would pick the Sony Pocket as my favorite, even with the not-great contrast. I like the look of the unit, I like the size (including the fact that's it's thicker than the Nook -- easier to hold on to), I like the battery life, and I like the easy navigation.

Of the two without e-ink displays, it's a toss-up. Sometimes I like the fact that the JBL uses AA batteries, and sometimes I wish I could just plug it in like my other devices. I like the battery bump to hold it by, but it makes it a pain to find a good cover for it. The Libre is fine, but you can't use the multi-directional button to turn pages on an epub book. The various ways to turn pages is one of the best features of these readers, so that's disappointing. (Of course, you could always convert it to another format.)

The Nook: I like the display a lot. I like swiping to turn pages. It's a little thin for me to hold comfortably, but I imagine if I were to put it in a cover I'd be fine. Navigation wise, though, it's a little more intimidating for a beginner in my opinion.

So that's how I spent my summer vacation... :-)


Edit: I should add that I did a good bit of reading in bed late at night when I couldn't sleep -- on my Palm PDA. Yep, backlighting has its place.

[boswd]

thanks for the detailed post.

As a proud pappa of a Nook could you elaborate on what was it about the Nook you found to be un intuative?

I do admit it does take a bit of a learning curve but I had mine down patt in less than an hour and was able to fly through things. It took me over a week to figure out my iPhone but once I did it was great,

But I am curious and please please please do no think Im being snarky here.

For example, If I put the nook in sleep mode while on the home page but what to read where I left off last in my book I was reading, I hit "Reading Now".

If I put the nook to sleep while on my page, it wakes up to the same spot.

If I want to search my Library for a book to read I go to "My Library"
I want to Shop for a book, I go to "Shop"

etc etc.

I am by no means a gadget guru so I always find it puzzeling when I hear that it is un intuative. I find it to be very easy and fun to navigate around. I love the touch screen. If you have a smartphone/blackberry. Then this thing is childs play.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by boswd

But I am curious and please please please do no think Im being snarky here.

I know you're not being snarky. :-)

I think that what feels confusing to me is the separate touchpad. For example, the Sony reader is not a touch device. Fine, I use the buttons and that makes sense to me. On the other hand, my phone (LG Dare) IS a touch device. Fine, I do everything on the screen, no problem. With the Nook, though, I kept finding myself not knowing exactly where to look. I had trouble finding "My Documents," even though I knew that's where the books I side-loaded would be. None of the icons at the bottom indicated any kind of file structure to me except the library one, but it opened only on the library. And yes, finally I found the documents by scrolling in the little screen down at the bottom while in the library screen, but I sure didn't jump right to it.

I didn't mean to imply that it's not a great reader, because I really loved the display, and I enjoyed being able to swipe to turn a page. I also enjoyed being able to turn pages from either side with the buttons. Maybe I was just having an off day, too, because, after all, I was on vacation. Too much sand, too much sun....